SpaceX launched its massive Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time in more than three years, hoisting military satellites and then nailing side-by-side booster landings near the launch pad.
As the rocket lifted off at midday, thick fog shrouded NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The crowd at the launch site couldn’t see the pad from three miles away, but they could hear the roar of the 27 first-stage engines.
Both side boosters separated two minutes after liftoff, flew back to Cape Canaveral, and landed just a few seconds apart. The core stage was discarded at sea, having expended all of the energy required to launch the Space Force’s satellites into their intended extra-high orbit.
This was SpaceX’s fourth flight of a Falcon Heavy, currently the most powerful rocket in use. The first, in 2018, launched SpaceX chief Elon Musk’s red Tesla convertible; the next two Heavy launches followed in 2019, lifting satellites.
